Mysterious Indonesian sea creature finally identified
Scientists have identified a giant sea creature that washed up on a beach in Indonesia last week.
The bizarre carcass left people on the island of Seram perplexed when it washed ashore, given its huge mass and strange shape.
The remains appeared to include tusks and tentacles, leading some online observers to contemplate that it may have been a long lost sea monster.
However, the truth, as always, is a little more simple.
A closer examination of the animal has revealed that it is probably a baleen whale.
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It was discovered by fisherman Asrul Tuanakota, 37, who initially thought it was a boat caught in shallow water.
Blood from the remains had turned the coastline bright red as locals crowded around the beast to take photos and inspect it.
But George Leonard, the chief scientist at the Ocean Conservancy, told the Huffington Post that the remains most likely belong to a baleen whale.
"Trying to identify huge ocean creatures half a [world] away from a grainy video is tough to do; but once people start sharing specific information that begins to narrow in on defining characteristics of the creature, the identity begins to come into focus," he said.
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Seram is close to the migration routes for baleen whales, so one could have have been swept ashore.
Edith Widder, chief executive of the Ocean Research & Conservation Association, also told the Huffington Post the creature was probably a baleen whale.
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